


Waltzing Matilda

by Jelly, muchosmuchosmangos



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 08:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6186883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jelly/pseuds/Jelly, https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchosmuchosmangos/pseuds/muchosmuchosmangos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody wants to go to the Shadis Leadership Retreat Center, not if they have a choice. It’s hot, it’s buggy, and it’s surrounded by miles of untouched wilderness and farmland. The ropes courses and Spartan facilities look like they should be training Marines. It’s the perfect place to teach the incoming Seniors at St. Maria Academy skills like “trust”, and “bonding”, and “not calling your fellow school captain a tool.” Erwin Smith is certain it’s just the right place for next years school leadership to learn how to get along and work together, and if they happen to come out of it a little banged up, or having destroyed camp property, or stealing a neighbor’s valuable livestock, well at least they had fun.<br/>Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 0

**Author's Note:**

> A collaboration between your friendly Attack on Titan fangirls/Jehovah's Witnesses.  
> (Greetings Neighbor! Have you heard the good news of Annie Leonhardt??)

Mikasa had never been someone who was prone to daydream. Eren, sure he had things he fantasized about, like winning the next all city football tournament, or finally telling their father he had earned a grade above a B in Math. Armin, of course, it was in his nature to spend hours lost in a book, sometimes it took them awhile to realize he hadn’t even been turning the pages, instead relying on the vividness of his own imagination to further the story. 

But Mikasa, no. The last time she remembered wishing for a new life, she had been sitting in the latest group home waiting for a new family (maybe a king and queen of a small country) to show up in their limo and spirit her away to her new home (castle). A prayer that had been both answered, then shattered in very short order. Dreams were for suckers and little girls, she had discovered. She preferred to live in the here and now, the real world was interesting and unpredictable enough, thank you very much. 

Usually. 

Now, as she stared outside the windows, she followed the path of the powerlines racing by and wondered how slow they would need to be going before she could hit the ground without causing herself some serious damage. The temperature outside was a sweltering 99 degrees Fahrenheit, and she idly wondered whether the heat of the pavement would even register before she felt the pain of her injuries. There was little to nothing that would buffer her fall, miles and miles of flat, uniform farmland stretched out as far as the eye could see. In the city there would have been hedges, shrubbery, even small trees lining the roads. But on the open highway there was only the unforgiving road and dusty shoulder. 

Torture, the word floated to the front of her mind. This was torture, that she was actually considering jumping from a fast moving bus rather than subject herself to one more minute, one more SECOND on this earth if she had to listen to even another line of this infernal-

“43 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 43 BOTTLES OF BEER, TAKE ONE DOWN, PASS IT AROUND, 42 BOTTLES-”

Mikasa pressed her head against the window and willed, for the 7th time that hour, that she could just deliberately trigger a brain aneurysm. A monster headache was already pounding away in her temples, caused no doubt by the previous 47 bottles of beer mentioned in the song, along with the twenty long minute version of Wheels on the Bus that had started the impromptu singalong. 2 more hours, she repeated to herself. Google maps had said that the full trip would take 8 hours, and they were already 6 hours in. (Not counting the hour they had taken at a Mcdonalds for lunch, which was meant to be 30 minutes until Sasha disappeared on a side trip to the neighboring Taco Bell.) Of course, that had been when her phone was still able to access a remote signal, and she hadn’t had reception for hours. She had no idea what route they were on, if they had been delayed, if they were even still on track to the CAMP, for god’s sake. The bus driver could be a murderer, and they were all on their cheerful way to certain death. True, one of the camp staff had come to escort them, and was now sitting in the front row sporting a bored expression and a softball sized set of noise cancelling headphones, but he could have been in on the plan. 

The whole trip was incredibly dodgy, Mikasa had decided long ago. Principal Smith had looked alltogether too pleased with himself to be getting rid of them. He had gathered the whole class together 3 weeks before the end of term, a time when they should have all been frantically preparing for exams, to announce this whole trip. 

“I’ve chosen next year’s school Captains a bit early this year,” he’d beamed at them, “so that you are all aware of your roles when you embark on this wonderful opportunity I’ve secured for you.”

The 150-odd students assembled clearly did not regard him with the rapt attention he had hoped for, given that most of them were also furiously texting each other under to confirm holiday plans, so he proceeded to the next statement after a clear of his throat. And what came next clearly got him the reaction that he wanted. 

“The first two weeks of the school holiday will be spent at a group retreat center in the neighboring province, I have the required information all ready for you to take home to your parents after this assembly.” He announced, then continued on over the groans and outraged shrieks from his audience. The small smirk he allowed himself was the only outward clue that he was indeed paying attention to the noises of dissent coming from the student body, which was growing louder as more of them started to focus on the fact that the man in front of them was effectively killing all their vacation plans. 

“The Shadis’ Retreat Center is one of the best in the area, the campground is pristine, and the staff are highly trained in their field. You will all be well taken care of.” Erwin said smoothly, then added the final nail to their collective coffin. “This trip is absolutely mandatory. For all students.”

The room was silent as 150-odd dreams and plans withered and died. The camp would take up a full third of the school break. So many beaches would remain unvisited. So many shows would remain unwatched. It was, they all agreed later, proof that the Headmaster was absolutely evil. 

Erwin looked out at every heartbroken face and smiled. “The second piece of good news,” he droned on, “is that decisions have been made regarding your Head of Houses, Athletics Captains, and student council liaisons for the next year’s term. I trust you will be as happy with the choices as I am, and make this next year a smooth transitions for everyone.” Their imposing Headmaster fumbled around in the pocket of his blazer and drew out a lined sheet of paper, then unfolded it and began to read. 

“Your Student Representatives are, Marco Bott, from Rose House, and Mina Carolina, from Stohess House. Congratulations Marco and Mina.”

There was a good amount of applause for the two, who awkwardly rose from their seats and nodded at each other, bright circles of red coloring each of their cheeks. Student Rep was unanimously agreed to be a “cush job”, the easiest in the student council. They got to show up to all the meetings and eat the snacks, but their only official role was to present any ideas and requests to their teachers as they came up. Still, Marco and Mina were so well liked and good natured, no one begrudged them their new roles. 

“The role of Athletics Captains was a tough decision for us to make, as our school has been blessed with many talented, well rounded individuals. It is my pleasure to announce that Eren Jaeger has been selected to represent our men’s team sports for the next school year.” 

Eren didn’t jump out of his chair so much as fling himself out, with a wordless roar of victory on his lips. He kept up his war cry for a few seconds too long before he noticed Principal Smith staring at him and shaking his head ever so slightly. Suddenly embarrassed at his enthusiasm, Eren wilted back into his seat as Erwin continued. 

“Mr. Jaeger has been a valuable member on our football, baseball, and rugby teams. He has demonstrated his aptitude for leadership both on and off the field. I’m sure he will be an admirable representative of our school at future events.” Erwin leveled a stare at Eren that caused him to sink even lower into his chair. 

Erwin’s eyes flicked down once more to his paper, then he composed his face back into it’s professional smile. “For girls team sports, I am happy to announce that we will be represented by Annie Leonhart. Miss Leonhart has the ambition and drive to compete in not 3, but 4 team sports. She is a talented member of our women’s golf, netball, and volleyball team, and this year competed with our gymnastics program at regionals, earning a bronze medal. Congratulations Miss Leonhart and Mr. Jaeger.”

Eren rose to his feet in a more dignified manner, gracing them all with a blinding grin. It was hard to realize when Annie made the transition to standing, as she was barely taller than all the seated students even when upright. Her small size was one of the reasons she was so adept at gymnastics, her forte being the rings. Even on the volleyball court she held her own against girls almost a full head taller, being able to jump impressively (and almost frighteningly, to tell the truth) high. Mikasa remembers she had wondered how one person had time for all the extracurriculars, before realizing that she had never seen Annie involved in anything that wasn’t sports related. 

The rest of the student body seemed to balance one or two athletics with another social club. Mikasa herself was on the volleyball and football teams, but also attended school newspaper meetings every Wednesday with her camera to take new photographs. Even Eren, who did three sports, showed up to Anime Club faithfully on Tuesdays. (Mikasa had gone once. Only once.) With Annie, it seemed if there wasn’t a potential for broken limbs, then it wasn’t worth the effort. And broken limbs was definitely a possibility when Annie was involved. 

Eren’s arm has certainly broken easily enough. 

That had been years ago, when Judo was still taught. (Eren’s arm, what Erwin referred to as “the incident” had been the final straw to getting the program defunded.) Mikasa still remembered like it was yesterday, every horrifying moment. Boys and girls were usually not allowed to spar, but Eren and Annie, the top students in each gender category, insisted. Since it was an after school session, not an official match, Erwin reluctantly accepted. Eren had been thrilled, Annie less so, but she still entered the ring civilly enough. It wasn’t until Eren landed the first hit that her attitude shifted. Suddenly Eren wasn’t a fellow student, darting around like an annoying fly. Eren was a...target. He didn’t notice, but Mikasa did, even from where she was sitting in the stands. The flat look that came over her eyes, the subtle shift to the way she circled him in fluid motions. Mikasa used to watch any and every big cat documentary that came on the Discovery channel, and right now, Annie looked like that. 

Eren didn’t even realize she meant business until he was already halfway over her shoulder, flying through the air. If he had seen it coming, he could have braced himself, could have tucked his arms close and braced for impact. But Eren was surprised, and he was surprised all the way until he hit the ground, his arm folding under him with a sickening crack that Mikasa heard from a good fifty feet away. Her screams and Eren’s intermingled as she vaulted over the lower bleachers and raced to his side, almost shoving a catatonic Annie out of the way. The students around them were running around, shouting about calling 911, but Annie just stood there, arms wrapped around her sides. “I’m sorry..” she whispered, her voice barely audible, and when Mikasa looked up a second later she was gone, her back disappearing through the gymnasium door. 

Annie was protected by the waiver they had signed at the beginning of the year, absolving the school and other students from any legal trouble. Erwin declared it an accident, albeit a preventable one, and the Judo program was dead in the water. Almost as important, Annie was protected by Eren’s forgiveness. Eren, who didn’t have a mean bone in his body, harbored absolutely no ill will. He laughed it off and forced Annie to be the first one to sign his “bitchin awesome cast”, joking about how he fell head over heels for her that year. The rest of the school gradually forgot, and Annie slowly lost the resigned hunch to her shoulders whenever anyone stared at her too long. 

But Mikasa remembered. Annie Leonhart was too intense, too rash. Her single minded goal of winning had hurt someone she cared about, she didn’t care it if was an accident. Annie, as if she could read Mikasa’s thoughts, glanced in her direction and then quickly looked away. Good, Mikasa thought as she and Eren sat back down. It’s better if we give each other as much space as possible. 

“Your Head of Houses for next year, Connie Springer and Sasha Braus, Stohess House. Ymir Johnson and Bertolt Hoover, Rose House. Jean Kirstein and Hitch Dreyfuss, Trost House. And finally, Historia Reiss and Reiner Braun, Sina House. Congratulations to you all, you have all shown an exemplary amount of maturity and leadership during your time at this school, I expect great things from you in the coming year.” Erwin motioned for all the named students to stand, then folded his list under his arm to join in the polite applause. 

The eight new house leaders had mixed responses to the news. Jean and Hitch shot to their feet, clearly they had been on the edge of their seats expecting their names to be called. Jean crossed his arms and tried to adopt was he hoped was a confident smile, while Hitch tossed her hair over her shoulder and preened. Connie and Sasha had already been seated next to each other, and whooped loudly at their shared victory, jumping up to complete a chest bump that knocked Connie over into Marco’s lap. Bertolt half rose, unwilling to stand up and tower over the rest of the seated students, and was staring very intently at his shoes while beads of sweat gathered at his brow. Ymir had remained in her chair, and lazily flung one arm up to swing back and forth, announcing her presence. 

Only the last 2, Historia and Reiner, reacted with the dignity expected of them. Those two were the rare combination of well liked AND well respected, and allowed themselves only a small nod and wave in each other’s direction before turning their attention to the rest of the student body, gracing them all with wide smiles. Honestly, most of the class had assumed the two of them were shoe-ins for Head Boy and Girl. Which didn’t leave many choices, except…

“And now,” Erwin gestured for the House Heads to retake their seats and swept his eyes across the room. “It is my sincere pleasure to announce your two new school leaders, who will guide you through your last years in the halls of St. Maria Academy. These two are active in the school culture, knowledgeable of its rules, and uphold the standards we expect of you here as young adults. Would Mikasa Jaeger, and Armin Arlert, please come join me on the stage?”

The room was silent as the grave. There were no more soft whispers, no sounds of keys being furtively tapped on hidden cell phones. All eyes rested on Mikasa and Armin as they slowly stood and fumbled their way to the stage. Armin did his best to look dignified, though color rose high on his cheeks as he kept his eyes locked forward. They reached the stairs with Armin slightly ahead of Mikasa, and she reached one hand out to lightly wrap around his as he shakily took the first step. The light squeeze he gave was barely perceptible, but it was there, before he quickly released her and they climbed up the stairs to line up next to Erwin. He beamed at both of them before gesturing towards them with a wide sweep of one hand, once again addressing the audience. 

“These two,” he declared, “are the well rounded individuals we hope to create here at St. Maria. Mikasa Jaeger frequently mentors younger students on the volleyball court and the football field, while also contributing her considerable talents as a photographer to our schools newspaper.” 

Talented was quite a stretch. Erwin must be feeling overly sentimental today, Mikasa figured. Truthfully, she had no idea what she was doing up on this stage. Especially next to Armin of all people, who she loved dearly and knew loved her in return. But next to Armin, she couldn’t help but feel like she came up...lacking. 

She could have waxed poetically on the reasons why, but Erwin must have had personally insight into her internal monologue because he did it for her. Out loud. 

“Armin Arlert. This young man has always been nothing but a credit to our school.” Erwin glanced at him with a look that could only be referred to as fatherly. “I don’t think we have a single club in this school that Armin hasn’t had a hand in at some point. Robotics, chess, Latin, and editor-in-chief of the school paper. He also joined our golf team at Nationals this year.”

The golf team was at Nationals because Eren brought them there, but still. Technically Armin was there too. 

“I have no doubts that these two will lead your class into a wonderful, last year of your education with us. And that they will do everything in their power to make this school camp a memorable one. You are all dismissed, and thank you for your time.”

The auditorium came alive with the sounds of chatter, and Erwin swiftly switched off the mike on the podium and turned to Mikasa in one fluid motion. 

“Miss Jaeger, can you see me in my office please.”

Erwin’s office was pristine, everything organized so perfectly you would almost never know that daily he organized the lives of 500 students. He eased himself into a massive leather chair on his side of the desk, and then pointedly tilted his head in the direction of the chair to Mikasa’s right. With a slight huff, she sank down and cross her arms, preparing for the lecture she was sure was coming. 

“Miss Jaeger,” he began, templing his fingers in front of him as he did so, “I wanted to let you know that your appointment of Head Girl is a….conditional, one.”

Mikasa cocked one eyebrow and waited. She knew well enough that her input was not needed at this point in the conversation, it was better to just let Erwin get along with whatever he wanted to say. 

“Your grades cannot be argued with, and your skill on the playing field has been well recognized, both by myself and a few of the scouts from the universities that I see lurking about on game days.”

She just nodded. It was no secret that she was already being courted by several big name colleges to come play for their athletic program when her time at St. Maria was done. 

“You are full of potential, Miss Jaeger. And that is the problem. The word potential contains an implication that you are being un-utilized...that you are holding back from your true skills and talents. You ace every test, but never offer to tutor. You teach your younger teammates, but only to the extent that they can assist you on the field. You are a loner, unwilling to help or be helped in return.”

Erwin leaned forward, a gleam in his eye. “And I think you can do more. So much more. You have so much you can give to your fellow students. Let them get to know you. You do want to lead them, don’t  you?”

Erwin sat back, ever so slightly nodding at her. This was now the part of the conversation where she could speak. 

She opened her mouth, ready for something pithy and noncommittal, but was surprised instead. “I do.” she answered truthfully, and she felt the real weight of those words. She hadn’t really entertained the idea of being Head Girl before, but now that it was so, tantalizingly close, she craved it. Being able to drop her status as Head Girl into future conversations, writing it down on her university applications. Hell, having the authority to keep EREN in line? It was all she had ever dream of it. And now it was in reach and she wanted it. Bad. 

But as with everything involving Erwin, there were strings involved. “What do I need to do to prove it?” She asked, and he quickly snapped his fingers and pointed at her.

“To the point, that’s what I like about you, Miss Jaeger.”

They were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door, then Erwin’s secretary stuck her head inside. “Sir, the other student you wanted to speak to is here”

“Splendid!” He boomed. “Send her in now.”

Mikasa stiffened as Annie Leonhart slunk inside, hands shoved into the front pocket of the hoodie she was wearing, (against dress code, Mikasa thought dryly.) Annie edged into the seat next to Mikasa’s, but leaned as far away as she physically could while still technically sitting. 

“Miss Leonhart, Miss Jaeger and I were having a conversation that I thought should include you too.” Erwin stated, meeting Annie’s cold gaze. 

“Whatever you say, Sir.” She replied flatly, which Erwin accepted and moved on. 

“Truthfully, ladies, I have my...concerns about the future of this school’s leadership.”

He leaned back and raked a hand through his hair. It remained as carefully coiffed as always, but he had touched it so roughly that Mikasa would be able to finally set the rumors at rest that it was a wig. (She would have to make sure to tell Sasha right away.)

“Individually you are all wonderful people, you all have your strengths and your weaknesses. You could perfectly balance each other out, if you all worked together. But everyone seems to be so focused on their own wants and goals, that I fear you’ll never reach a common vision.”

Mikasa shifted in her seat. “Can you just lay it out for us, sir?” She asked bluntly. If she wasn’t around to supervise, Eren would never get any studying done. Armin was too much of a softy to be the disciplinarian, prone to go along with any half cocked idea in Eren’s head. 

“ _ Get along _ .” Erwin stated. “You two especially. I’m well aware of this ‘bad blood’ between you. While you haven’t done anything outwardly antagonistic to each other, it is very obvious that the two of you would rather be anywhere but in the same room. Your volleyball coach, Miss Ral, says scrimmages are impossible. If you’re on different teams, you turn it into some kind of grudge match. If she puts you on the same team, you ignore each other to the detriment of your team. This school camp is your chance - all of your chance - to prove that you all can work as a unit. You need to attend, and you need to participate, if you wish to keep your status as Head Girl, and yours as Sports Captain. And I WILL be informed if either of you attempt to phone this in.”

Silence. Mikasa glanced at Annie, feeling uneasy and reluctant and suspicious of her all at once. But Annie’s eye twitched once, and betrayed nothing else. For some reason, her ability to pretend she didn’t care infuriated Mikasa just  _ that  _ little bit more - if only because Mikasa was slightly less good at it. 

“And this camp, Sir…” she added at last. “What will we be doing there?”

And Erwin had told them, in an almost gleeful way. They would be staying in the middle of nowhere, for two weeks. The place was run by an old military man, and had almost no amenities. They would spend their days on hikes, doing ropes courses, and general team building “ra-ra-ra” bullshit. It sounded god awful, even then. 

That was before Mikasa had been stuck on a bus for six hours and 63 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, and she would give anything to go back and punch her past self in the face. Head Girl wouldn’t be worth this. NOTHING could be worth this. She couldn’t even hear herself think in here, and she dug her nails into the seat during the brief pause before the next verse, hoping in vain that she would be struck deaf by some previously unknown genetic illness, when suddenly..

“Would you all. Shut. The. Hell. UPPPPPPP.”

Rang out from the back of the bus. They very back. The strong, clear voice was unrecognizable to all of them, because they had never before heard it used with such volume or forcefulness. 74 heads (The other 75 were in the second bus) craned around in tandem to see…

Annie Leonhart. Already back to her book, as if she’d never stopped reading it. She was either oblivious to all the stares, or very good at pretending to be. Mina, who was sitting next to Mikasa turned back around with a whispered “Sorry.”, and all the rest followed suit. Eren and Armin, in the seat across the aisle, were crestfallen. They had spearheaded the 99 Bottles of Beer, and had hoped to see the song all the way through. 

The bus lurched along a few more miles in silence. Finally, unable to bear the quiet anymore, Marco timidly raised his voice and asked “Does anyone else know any more songs we could sing? Maybe something not so...repetitive?” A few people cast fearful glances in Annie’s direction, but her attention remained in her book. 

Instead, the reply came from their camp chaperone at the front of the bus, who had not said a single word the whole trip thus far. Noise drew all their attention forward, and they realized the surly looking man was...humming. He was watching the scenery fly by, humming a strange, unfamiliar melody. Connie furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes. 

“Is that...is that  _ Waltzing Matilda _ ?” 

He searched the crowd, but received no answer. So he stretched forward from his seat, dangling across the aisle to tap the man on the shoulder. “Hey.” He called, then tapped harder. “HEY.” 

The man abruptly turned around, standing up to look down at Connie. He shrugged the headphones off his head and shook out his glossy black hair. For the first time, they all noticed that the headphone weren’t attached to anything. He hadn’t been listening to music after all, they were just there to muffle the sound of their inane chatter. They also all noticed how short he was. He had already been sitting when they arrived on the bus, and the khaki green polo with the embroidered patch announcing the name of the camp was the only way to know he was an employee. He had not bothered to introduce himself. 

The man flicked his eyes down to meet Connie’s and raised one eyebrow in a disinterested scowl. “What?” He asked flatly.  

Connie cleared his throat, suddenly very bashful. “Why...why are you humming Waltzing Matilda? It’s just...that’s such an old song… it’s not even from this country… and you’re not even listening to anything…” Connie trailed off, and the man laughed. 

“Oh,” he chuckled, “You’ll find out soon enough.” Then just as abruptly, he turned back around and jammed the headphones over his ears, angling his body way towards the window. This conversation was clearly over. 

Connie looked back over his shoulder and shrugged at all of them, he was as lost as they were. 

Quiet talking filled up the bus, and Mikasa rested her head against the cool glass on the window. She checked the time on Mina’s wristwatch and closed her eyes, repeating her mantra. 1 hour and 45 minutes, she chanted internally. 1 hour and 45 minutes…

  
  


They must have been making better time than Mikasa thought, because 1 hour and 23 minutes later, the bus doors opened and spat them out in front of an admittedly beautiful patch of forest. Backed up against rolling hills of some kind of cultivated crop (Beans? Mikasa would have to ask Armin later. That was exactly the kind of crap he would know.), untouched trees and ferns sprang up, casting a dark shadow over the narrow, dirt road that stretched before them and disappeared into the shade. 

“Where is the camp?” Eren mumbled, reaching his hand up to protect his eyes from the rays of the late afternoon sun. Mikasa wondered that too, the farmhouse visible to their left looked too small to be able to hold all of them. And she couldn’t see a break in the trees as much as she squinted into the opening made by the road ahead. Which meant…

“A couple kilometers down that way. An easy walk.” Their bus chaperone had been the last one to deboard, and he was dangling one foot off the last step now, headphones draped around his neck. “Everyone’s got their bags, yes? Right then.” 

He gave a sharp knocked on the side of the bus and jumped down, the doors instantly closing behind him as the vehicle rumbled to life and lurched away. The second bus did the same, it’s own surly looking attendant waving away the children staring dumbstruck as it left them behind. The other chaperone, a youngish looking woman with a shock of white blonde hair and glasses, gave a roll of her eyes to the man behind them. 

“Looks like Rico had as much fun as I did.” He mumbled, then turned back to face them. “Alright you lot, now that you’re on my turf I guess it’s worth getting to know you. My name is Levi. I’m letting you know that as a courtesy, I  _ strongly _ suggest you call me Mr. Ackermann for the rest of your time here.”

“Sir...Mr. Ackermann, did you just say we were walking there?” That was Historia, who right now was staring at the small mountain of luggage she had brought with her. Erwin had told them all to limit themselves to a duffel and a backpack, but Historia wasn’t used to traveling light. 

“Correct. And we’d better get moving, you’ll only get more tired the longer you sit around whining about it.” 

A collective clamor rose up from the student body. A few of them threw themselves down into the dusty road, arms and legs akimbo. “I’m hot.” “I’m too tired.” “My legs are asleep from the ride.” All floated to the front of the crowd, punctuated by angry groans. Levi looked at the disheveled teenagers with disgust.

“Who are your Head Boy and Girl?” He demanded. “Were they on this bus? Control your classmates before I just leave you here for the bears.”

Armin stepped forward, and paled under the combined weight of more than a hundred tired glares. “Um..Mr. Ackermann..wouldn’t it be possible for the buses to come back? Everyone  _ has  _ had a very long day..”. 

“No.” Levi said bluntly. “We rent space for the buses from a nearby farm. They would never make it up this road, not in one piece anyway. No one here is going to drop dead from a little walking, so get everyone on their feet.”

He stared expectantly at Armin, who glanced back and forth between Levi and the student body, as if weighing whose anger would be worse. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally shot Mikasa a desperate, fearful glance. “Mika..?”

Mikasa stepped up to the plate. “OY!” She bellowed. “We can rest when we get there, right now we’ve got to get moving. I’m tired too, but there is nothing to do but  _ deal with it _ , got it? Now everybody grab your shit, and let’s go.” 

She grabbed her own bags, slung them over her shoulder and strode forward. She didn’t look back, but a few seconds later she heard the straining sound of tired bodies standing up and shuffling forward. They complained, and they whined, but they were coming. Mikasa walked further into the dim forest, and a few seconds later heard two pairs of footsteps coming up behind her. From the slight wheezing over her left shoulder, one of them was Armin, so she slowed slightly to allow him to catch up. The voice over her right caught her by surprise.

“One of Shadis’ rules is no cursing,” Levi said, the slightest hint of mirth in his tone, “but I’ll let that one slide because the emphasis was needed.”

Mikasa slowed even further until the three of them were all in step, and Levi started addressing the both of them. “So, you must be Mikasa Jaeger and Armin Arlert. Erwin sent over a list of student council members, and said you two would be in charge. At least one of you is, anyway.”

Armin looked away rather than meet Levi’s sidelong gaze, and Mikasa bristled. “It’s the first day, Mr. Ackermann. Our school year hasn’t even started.” She said through gritted teeth. Erwin would expect her to be respectful to everyone in this camp, even this annoying little man who was already pushing her buttons. 

Levi hummed in response. “Indeed. It is just the first day. Well, maybe I’ll expect more from you by the end.” At that he fell back, bringing his pace to a crawl in order to fall in line with the next two students trailing behind them. Which happened to be Eren and Annie, who seemed to be existing in companionable silence. Probably because it made it better to eavesdrop, since Eren met backwards gaze with a talky hand motion, then playfully bumped Annie’s shoulder. He looked for a response, but Annie merely shrugged him off, her attention on Levi who matched pace with her and began his line of interrogation on who they were. 

Armin and Mikasa turned back around and quickened their step. Armin hunched his shoulders over as he walked, a pained expression on his face. Mikasa tugged on the strap of his backpack, concerned.

“Do you want me to take that? I can probably carry both.” She fretted, already lifting the bag halfway off his frame before he snatched it back. 

“No!” He shot back. “It’s not heavy...I mean, it is, but I can manage it.” 

“Then what is it, Armin? You look so miserable already.” Mikasa worried, taking her hand off his shoulder. 

“It’s just…” He sighed. “Mikasa, do you think I can do this?”

“Make it to the camp? I hope so. It’s pretty hard to get lost on a one way road.”

“You know what I mean.” He snapped, then took a deep breath and gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry. That’s just…”

“I knew what you meant.” Mikasa said softly. They walked along in silence for a few minutes before she began again. “Of course you can, Armin. No one would be better at this than you.”

“You are.” He said, then gave her a meaningful look. “You’re already so much better at this. Everyone  _ listens  _ to you.”

“That’s because I’m a minority.” She said sagely. “They’re afraid if they don’t listen to me I’ll call them racist. And white people hate being  _ called _ racist more than they hate being racist.”

Armin burst out laughing, and all of a sudden looked 15 pounds lighter. “People wouldn’t be as scared of you if they knew how funny you were, you know. Maybe I’ll spill the beans, tell everyone your secret.” 

“Maybe that’s why this works, because they’re scared of me. You can be the good cop to my bad cop. Anyway, who is scared of me?”

“Oh, lots of people.” Armin said, then started counting off his fingers. “Historia, Jean, Mina..”

“Mina is my friend!” 

“Does she know that? Maybe she thinks this is some kind of long term hostage situation. Also Bert.”

Mikasa shook her head. “Doesn’t count. Bert’s scared of everyone.”

“That is true. I’ll strike his name and replace him with Annie, then.” Armin said, folding one finger back in and then instantly straightening it back. “And those are just our friends, Mikasa. I can only imagine what nameless student #7 in chemistry class thinks of you.”

“Annie is not one of our friends.” She said curtly, eyes focused on the light appearing further down the road. The campsite must be getting closer. 

“Uh, Mikasa, Annie might not be one of  _ your  _ friends, but she she’s definitely one of mine. And Eren’s. And really anyone that isn’t you.” Armin spoke with the exasperated tone of someone who has had the same conversation rehashed fifty times. Which he had. But Mikasa was always game for another. 

“Oh no. Annie is not, and never will be, one of our friends, not after what she did to Eren.” Mikasa huffed a little, now she was speed walking while Armin tried to keep up with her. 

“That was two years ago, Mika. You’re still mad about that? Eren’s not even still mad, and he’s the one who got hurt.”

“She broke his  _ arm, _ Armin.” She hissed, then glanced backward. Eren and Annie were still a safe distance behind them, it looked like Eren was chattering away while Annie added the occasional nod to the conversation. Mikasa turned back. “She broke his arm, and then she didn’t even stick around to see if he was okay. She didn’t come to the hospital, she didn’t come to our house. Her Dad called to see if he owed us any money, but that was it. Total radio silence until Eren came back to school.”

“She was scared, Mikasa. And she felt bad, her dad told your dad so. He told Grisha that Annie had been crying herself to sleep.” 

Mikasa hadn’t known that part of the story. “Eren didn’t tell me that..” She said slowly, and Armin rolled his eyes. 

“Would you have believed it? Or would you think it was something she told her dad to say as some kind of GRAND CONSPIRACY to turn Eren against you?” Armin sighed and adjusted the pack over his shoulders. “I just wish...you guys could get along. I like Annie, and I think you’d like her too, if you’d get to know her.”

Mikasa broke through the treeline, stepping into a large clearing dotted with rustic cabins and sheds. “I already know her, Armin.” She said shortly. “I can’t change that I don’t like what I know.” 

The rest of the students gradually filtered in behind them, and they all mingled around in the sudden brightness for a few seconds. There was a distinct smell of smoke in the air, and the smell of something cooking. The cooking aroma came from a direction where a figure was enthusiastically waving, trying to get their attention. 

“Ahoy!!” They called. “Yoohooo!! Dinner’s over here, guys!”

Mikasa went from thinking she didn’t have any more strength to go even one more step, to suddenly finding a hidden well inside of her. Reserve strength. Just enough to make it to that table piled high with hot dogs. And watermelon. And corn on the cob. She practically flew over, feeling almost weightless despite the heavy bags strapped to her back and carried under one arm. 

The figure standing at the food table was a tall young woman with unruly brown hair, hastily scraped back into a ponytail. A wide grin almost split her face in two. She bounced on the balls of her feet, practically radiating excitement. 

“Welcome welcome welcome!” She crowed. “I’m Hange, nice to meet you! Take as much food as you want, you must be hungry. Mike can always cook up some more.”

She gestured at a lanky, blond man who was overseeing a group of grills. He lazily waved a spatula at them in response. 

Mikasa snatched a plate and started piling it high. Sasha was next to her, doing the same, and Mikasa had to slap her hand away when she started taking an ear of corn off her own plate. 

“But you picked the best piece..” Sasha whined, then moved to a more forgiving part of the line. Jean took her place and stared at Hange. 

“Um.” He said cautiously.  “Are you the Camp Director?” 

“Oh no.” Hange shook her head wildly. “I’m just the nurse. Well, nurse, slash lifeguard, slash assistant chef. Commander Shadis will meet you all tomorrow morning, we’ll just let you get settled in tonight.”

“Commander..?” Jean looked questioningly as Mikasa, who just shrugged in response. 

“You have all the information I do, Jean. I’m sure we’ll hear about it tomorrow.” She told him before wandering off with her plate of food. It was easy to tell the staff apart from the students, with their green uniform shirts, and she noticed one of them carrying a clipboard and muttering to herself. 

It was the other bus monitor, Levi had said her name was Rico. Mikasa made her way over, swallowing her last bite of hot dog as she did so. 

“Hi.” Rico looked over, irritated at the interruption, but Mikasa soldiered on. “Are you in charge of cabin assignments?” 

Rico eyed her suspiciously. “Yes. But you can’t go inside until you’re done eating. No food in the cabins.”

Mikasa tossed her empty plate into the closest garbage can without looking. Many afternoons playing frisbee were finally coming in handy. “Done!” She announced. “Now can I go inside?”

Rico sighed, staring at her over the rims of her glasses. “Don’t you want to stay out here for a while, spend time with your friends?”

“Nope.” Mikasa answered, then stood there waiting. Rico finally brought her clipboard back up with one more sullen look, flipping through the pages. “Fine. Name?”

“Mikasa Jaeger.”

“Jaeger..you’re in the leadership cabin, with your fellow student council members. It’s smaller than the others, but not any nicer. We don’t really do special treatment here. That’s also MY cabin, so please be kind and bother me as little as possible.” Rico threw a thumb over her shoulder and cocked it. “Cabin two. Behind me, to my right. Bunks are already labeled.”

“Thank you.” Mikasa called, already moving. Her body hurt from sitting in a cramped bus seat, and the light exercise on the walk here had done little to stretch her muscles. She just wanted a little privacy for some lunges, maybe a couple sunrise salutations. (She’d never tell Historia that the yoga class she’d brought Mikasa to had actually taught her some useful stuff.) 

With a light touch, the screen door creaked open. God forbid there were actually any bears out here, the cabins were so easy to open they might as well be presents. Mikasa stepped inside and breathed deep. There were so many windows, the air felt exactly the same as it did outside. Clean and crisp, the temperature finally going down now that the sun was setting. She didn’t bother turning the switch that would illuminate the single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, she could see perfectly well in the dim light. Three sets of bunk beds were scattered around the room, with three massive wooden dressers wedged between them. There was a door off to the side, and when Mikasa nudged it open it revealed a closet sized room with a single bed, and someone else’s personal effects scattered around. Rico’s room, probably. 

Mikasa wandered back out to the main room, scanning each bunk as she did so. Hitch, Historia. Ymir, Sasha. That left the bunk closest to the door and one more set of names. Which meant..

She sped over to the last bunk bed and tore the name card off the pillow on the bottom bunk, letting out a string of expletives. It wasn’t bad enough that she was sharing a bunk with Annie, she was sharing a bunk while Annie got the  _ upper bed _ . 

“Won’t do.” Mikasa muttered. “That won’t do at all.” Dropping her bags to the floor, she shimmied up the ladder, name card clutched in her fist. “Sorry Annie.” She said, plucking the neatly written card that had  **Annie** penciled in sweeping script. 

“Sorry for what?”

Mikasa’s foot slipped off the step where it had been hovering, and she fell to the floor with an undignified shriek. Her bags broke most of her fall, and Mikasa hoped the cracking sound she heard was her tailbone, rather than the bottle of shampoo that was most definitely going to ruin everything she owned. 

“Nononono.” She whispered, zipping open the top of her duffel and frantically pawing through its contents. Annie, standing over her, was unsympathetic to her plight. 

“ _ Mikasa. _ Sorry for WHAT?” She repeated, sounding impossibly bored even as her eyes bored into Mikasa like lasers. 

“Oh.” Mikasa looked down at her hand, holding two crumbled pieces of stationary. “..Sorry that I got the top bunk and you didn’t.”

Annie snorted. “Like shit you did. You were up there messing around with something. You took my spot, didn’t you?”

Mikasa ignored her, having finally located the offending shampoo bottle. “Thank god.” She sighed, looking at the thin crack that was barely starting to bubble over. Nothing inside was harmed, it looked like. God knows if they even had laundry facilities in this place. Her nicest sports bra was in there, was she just supposed to swish it around in the lake, like an animal?

A foot suddenly made contact with her bag, sending it spinning under the nearest bed. “Will you stop fucking around with your stuff? I know I got the top bunk.”

“Prove it.” Mikasa answered, looking up to glare into Annie’s eyes. “I got here first, and I’m the one who saw the name cards. You’re bottom bunk, get over it.” 

“Bullshit!” Annie seethed, and stomped outside, throwing her bags on the floor with emphasis as she did so. When she returned, she was dragging a very pissed off looking Rico with her, along with their four other cabin mates trailing along to watch the show. 

Annie pointed an indignant finger at Mikasa and addressed Rico. “Did I, or did I not, have the top bunk when you assigned this cabin?”

“I cannot believe you guys are seventeen.” Rico muttered, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “Ladies, I don’t know whose bunk was whose, I put those out this morning. And does it really matter?”

“YES.” Annie and Mikasa said in unison, causing the rest of the girls to jump from where they had been quietly putting their things away. Rico threw her hands in the air. 

“Someone just pick one! I don’t have time to mediate bullshit concerns. You two are practically adults. Act like it! Come up with a solution without fighting, or I’ll make both of you sleep on the porch.” Rico disappeared into her side room, slamming the door at she did so. They could hear her through the wall, talking to herself about things like “art degree” and “waste of time” and “at least Costco pays above minimum wage”. 

Annie and Mikasa didn’t look at each other, while the rest of the girls pretended not to look at them. Finally Mikasa broke the silence, determined to take the high road. If only because she knew Erwin would hear about it if she didn’t. 

“We could switch.” She said quietly, and while Annie didn’t say anything, Mikasa saw her turn towards her out of the corner of her eye. “You know, one of us takes the top bunk tonight, one of us tomorrow, and so on. Until camp is over.” 

Annie stayed silent for a few minutes, considering. “Fine.” She said abruptly, then kicked her bags under the bed on her way to the ladder in one fluid motion. “I’ll take the first night.” She said, hoisting herself up the rungs. “Because you’re a fucking liar.” 

“Language.” Rico called through the wall, and Annie heaved herself onto the mattress and started adjusting the blankets. The other girls stopped their packing to stare. 

“Annie.” Ymir said, “Don’t you want to, you know, change into your sleep clothes?” Annie’s eyes glared back at her over the top of the sheet she was cocooning herself into. She was still wearing the sweatpants and volleyball t-shirt she’d worn on the bus. Ymir nodded and went back to her own bag.

“Oh. Right. Those are your sleep clothes. Because that’s all you ever wear. My mistake. But hey, nothing wrong with dressing like you could be ready for a nap in five seconds flat. Or a hot dog eating contest. You know, you do you.”

Mikasa finished slamming her things into her dresser and threw herself into the bottom bunk, staring resentfully at the mattress above her. She kicked the wooden post by her left foot, then kicked it again when she heard Annie stir. 

“Knock it off, Mikasa.” Came the muffled response above her, so she kicked again with more force the third time. An arm swung into her field of vision and flailed close to her head. “Stop kicking the fucking bed!!”

Rico ripped her door open, stomping over to the light switch. “What did I say about language! You’ve earned a lights out, everybody go to sleep. The girls bathroom is a few buildings down, there’s a sign. But this light stays off, I don’t need you staying up and causing trouble. The alarm will go off at 6 am sharp, breakfast at 6:30.” 

Rico made her way back to her room, leaving them all to adjust to the darkness. “But it’s only 8:30…” came Historia’s weak reply. Hitch huffed and climbed her own ladder. It shouldn’t be possible, but Mikasa  _ heard  _ her hair flip, just now.

“Blame Mikasa and Annie. Some leaders they are. In trouble our first night.” Hitch said, her nasal voice even more grating than usual. 

“Lay off.” Sasha whispered, crawling into her own bed. “They’re probably just hungry, I know I get crabby when I’m hungry. I could use a snack myself.”

“We literally just ate like, 20 minutes ago. You ate 7 hotdogs.” Ymir’s voice came from across the room. 

“I know.” Sasha groaned. “I wasn’t sure there would be enough for everyone, I really held back.”

“You all are ridiculous.” Hitch declared. “Isn’t that right, Historia?” 

A small snore came from the direction of Historia’s bed. “Oh come on.” Hitch exclaimed. “There’s no way she’s asleep already.”

“She has a gift.” Mikasa said. “She was always the first one to fall asleep at slumber parties, growing up. She earned a lot of frozen bras that way.” 

“She stayed up til 9:30 at my birthday party. I think that was the new record.” This voice came from above her, and Mikasa frowned into the darkness. Historia went to Annie’s birthday party? Annie even had a birthday party in the first place? It sounded like she was the only one out of the loop, since Sasha and Ymir were chiming in confirmation of Historia’s behavior. Mikasa rolled over to face the wall, turning this new information over in her mind. 

“What do they see?” Were her last thoughts before she succumbed to sleep. “What do they know about her that I don’t?”

  
  
  


“ONCE A JOLLY SWAGMAN CAMPED BY A BILLABONG

UNDER THE SHADE OF A COOLIBAH TREE”

At 6 am sharp, 150 tired, partially dressed teenagers stumbled out of their cabins, hands over their ears. Mikasa fell to her knees in the grass, making eye contact with Eren as he lurched out of the boys leadership cabin next door. 

“What!!” She screamed over the sound. “What. On Earth. Is. THAT.” 

Eren shook his head, whether because he didn’t know the answer, or didn’t hear the question. Reiner finally stretched a pointed finger to something above their heads. 

“THAT.” He called. “It’s coming from there!”

They all craned their necks, looking in the same direction towards an ancient, rickety loudspeaker. That was currently blaring...something...at top volume. 

“Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a’waltzing Matilda, with me.”

“Oh my god!” Connie screamed, then hurried back inside the boy’s cabin. He came running back out almost as quickly. “That bastard is just in there laughing! He fucking KNEW.” 

“When does it stop??” Annie yelled, hoodie pulled up over her ears and cinched tight so only a small circle of her face was visible. 

“At 6:30!” Connie called back, looking half crazed already. “It stops when it’s time to go to breakfast. And it plays EVERY DAY.” 

Mikasa wished, not for the last time, that she had just gone deaf on the bus after all. 


	2. Day 1

Day 1

 Probably the worst thing about Waltzing Matilda was the fact that it was catchy as hell. The song had played once and once only, and Mikasa knew in her head that the only sounds she could actually hear were the complaints of 149 other students as they shuffled blearily into the mess hall, but she could _swear_ she could still hear it when she found her seat. Once, a long time ago, she could honestly say she hated her life - and although it was much better now, this camp shit was getting pretty close.

 She groaned.

  _“And he sang as he sat and waited til his billy boiled, ‘who’ll come  a-waltzing matilda with me?’”_

 She groaned louder. “ _Shut up_ ,” she hissed, and Mina actually squeaked when she sat down across from her.

 “S-Sorry,” she mumbled weakly, and part of Mikasa died a little when she remembered what Armin had said about people being afraid of her. “It’s… stuck in my head…”

 Mikasa huffed guiltily. “No, Mina - I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. Did you - uh - did you sleep okay?”

 “She probably slept better than us,” said Ymir as she dropped into her seat as well. “She didn’t have to deal with you and Annie arguing about stupid ass shit last night.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe Principal Smith thought it would be a good idea to make to the two of you school leaders, you can’t even put your damn differences aside for one fucking second…”

 “Ymir, don’t swear so much, Mr. Ackermann will hear.” Historia nudged her and jerked her head meaningfully at the boys’ table where the counsellor in question was laying out jars of unlabelled breakfast spread.

 “Fuck him,” snapped Ymir. “He looks like he’s enjoying this torment way too much anyway. And he wasn’t up all night listening to the two six year olds who are supposed to be school and sports captains.”

 Mikasa frowned at her. “Rude, much?”

 “It ain’t rude if it’s true.” Ymir scowled at her and tossed a napkin at her face. “Don’t even fucking start, okay. Annie didn’t even provoke you this time, most of that shit was you. And I’m not saying she’s completely faultless either - she should have had the maturity to just get over it - but the fact is you _both_ act like fucking children and I swear to _god_ that if you pull this shit again tonight, I will murder you in your bunks.”

 Mikasa gaped at her for what she hoped wasn’t actually an entire two minutes, but when she had finally realized she could control her jaw again, Armin was standing at the end of the table with a grin. Annie appeared at his elbow not a second later, peering curiously at the pile of cards in his arms.  

 “Cabin names,” he said, leafing through them. “Here.”

 Mikasa blinked. “House Tyrell?” she read aloud with a frown. “Armin, you know I love Game of Thrones as much the next girl, but what, did you pick the house with most flowery emblem and give it to us because we’re girls?”

 “Uhm, no?” said Armin almost nervously. “I mean - that wasn’t what I intended at all...”

 “He picked it _because_ House Tyrell is known for its women,” quipped Annie, helping herself to a piece of toast and some of the unlabelled spread. “They’re capable in their own right - they know how to play the game without compromising their own values while still maintaining traditional standards of beauty. That should have been easy enough to figure out.”

 Armin stared at her. Then he let out a sigh of relief. “That’s - yeah - exactly,” he said. He nodded at his own table. “We’re House Baratheon.”

 “Because Stannis is the closest they have to stable form of government?” asked Annie.

 “You are _good_ ,” said Armin, high fiving her. “Um. Mina, I know you’re not bunking with them because there’s only six beds per bunk, but you’re part of the new leadership team, so for everything except sleeping, you’re part of House Tyrell. It’s the same with Marco. He’s bunking in Arryn but techincally a Baratheon. Annie, do you wanna come and hand these out with me?”

 “Nah. Breakfast.” And Annie waved him off, turned back to the rest of them and was met with five blank stares and Mikasa’s bitter scowl.

  _“Nerd_ ,” sneered Ymir.

 She gave her a dignified shrug in response, but what dignity she had was lost when she bit into her toast. She gagged, spitting it back out almost immediately, and scrambled for the nearest glass of water.

 “What the fuck is that?” she gasped.

 On Historia’s other side, Sasha paused over her cornflakes and raised an eyebrow. She snatched at the jar and gave it a cautious sniff. “Is - is this _Vegemite_?” she asked making a face. “Waltzing Matilda and Vegemite - what, did we take the bus to Australia or something? What the hell kind of camp is this?”

Mikasa felt the chill before she even heard the voice. The shadow passed over them like something ominous, and across from her, Annie’s face went from pale to paler in less than a second. In any other circumstance, Mikasa probably would have thought this was funny - but the shadow behind her had a voice that made her wish she still had Waltzing Matilda stuck in her head to drown it out.

“This,” it said darkly, “is one of the best school retreats in the country. Schools will send me their best, and their worst, and I’ve heard that you lot are among _the worst._ ”

Mina audibly gulped.

Historia shrunk in her chair.

 The mess hall had gone silent, and Mikasa’s lungs felt tight in her chest. She was pretty sure the air was sucked out of the room at the same time this presence entered it, and she swallowed, took the deepest breath she could manage and turned her head.

 The man behind her was the most imposing man she’d ever met in her life. He was tall, and bald, and he glared down at their table with eyes that could see through bullshit before it was even excreted. Something like a smirk crossed his face.

 “ON YOUR FEET, 104.”

 Mikasa felt herself spring from her seat. The others did too, and Sasha dropped the jar with a loud _thunk._ The man behind them snorted and turned to face the rest of the assembly.

 “Welcome to the Shadis Retreat Centre,” he boomed. “I am Keith Shadis. You will refer to me as Commander Shadis or sir, am I understood?”

 The mess hall quivered and 150 odd students mumbled terrified “Yes sirs,” under their breaths.

Shadis snorted. “You have been sent here because at the beginning of the next school year, you will be expected to lead your peers. Not just you,” he added, glaring at the two leadership tables at the head of the hall. “ _All_ of you are expected to be role models for the younger grades. Your principal probably referred to this as a retreat; your last chance to bond before your final school year takes you into the next phase of your lives - but this far from just a ‘retreat’. Here, you will learn to live without conveniences you have grown used to. You will learn how to survive without infernal devices such as cellphones. You will learn to communicate with each other instead of spending every waking moment blogging about your uneventful teenaged lives. You will learn to solve your own problems instead asking for help and expecting an adult to solve them for you. Many of you will become _legal_ adults this year, and you will learn to act like it at this camp.”

 “Do not think that this will be an easy ride. You are here to learn, but you are also here to work. You have been assigned various tasks that are to be completed when you are not participating in camp activities. Your cabins will be inspected daily. Each night, a group of you will be expected to make and serve dinner to your peers. There will be no getting out of any activity unless your cabin leader can verify that you have a valid excuse. There will be no cursing on the premises, and if I personally hear you doing so, I will increase the workload of your entire cabin. Food wastage - ” he shot a backwards glance at Annie and her unfinished toast - “is frowned upon, and fighting is not tolerated.” He took a few seconds to let this sink in. Mikasa could swear even the bugs outside had stopped buzzing around in fear. “I am not a patient man,” Shadis said after a moment. “Nor am I forgiving. Give me a reason to send you home and I will.” Then he turned on his heel and stomped out of the mess hall.

 Nobody moved. Nobody was sure they were allowed. It wasn’t until Hange sauntered in front of them with a terrified looking Armin in stride that they realized the address was over.

 “Now that we’ve got those formalities out of the way,” she said cheerfully (Mikasa thought she looked as if she thought the whole thing was really funny), “your head boy wanted to make an address too. Armin?”

 Armin went from only slightly red to bright tomato red so fast that Mikasa was surprised he didn’t spontaneously combust while he was at it. “Uh…” He glanced at his own table, and then at the girls table as if he was looking for backup, and for a moment, Mikasa considered coming to his aid - except that she had no idea what he wanted to say to begin with. She gave him what she hoped was an encouraging nod.

 Armin only swallowed and went rigid instead. “U-um,” he began at last. “Hi. Uh. I’m Armin. In case you didn’t know me already. I mean. You might know me already, b-but, in case you don’t --”

 “Get to the point, Armin,” whispered Hange kindly.

 “Um,” he managed, in a voice 3 octaves higher than usual. “So - so you’ll notice I gave you some cabin names. They’re uh - ” he flushed even deeper, and Mikasa thought he might have just invented an entirely new shade of red. “They’re the House names from Game of Thrones. While we’re here, all your activities will be with your bunks, but you’ll be paired with a different bunk each day. For - for example, House Reyne and House Lannister will be on the high ropes today - ”

 “That seems like a bad idea,” someone murmured, and Armin fidgeted and dropped his cards.

 “Um. I mean. Anyway - the point is House Reyne will be paired with a different House tomorrow and so on and so forth. Your cabin leaders have your timetables, so… yeah…” There was a pause. A really awkward one. Armin swallowed. “The - the only ones who won’t be swapping will be the leadership cabins,” he added finally. “And on the last day of camp, I thought - I thought we could have something like an Olympics? Um. Yeah…”

 “Anything else?” Hange asked him quietly, and he shook his head furiously and shuffled away.

 Hange rolled her eyes a little. “Well then. Finish your breakfast, everyone, you’ve got a big day ahead!”

 The noise broke out again. Annie made a face and pushed her toast away from her. “No, thank you.”

 “Try the cereal,” said Sasha, offering her her bowl. “It’s delicious - the milk tastes so fresh.”

 “That’s correct,” Hange said on her way past. “It’s from the cows on the farm down the road. Hasn’t been treated or anything. We get it fresh from the udder.”

 Sasha dropped her spoon and gagged. Mikasa thought she could hear Hange cackling as she exited the mess hall, and for the third time that morning, she groaned. This was going to be the longest 2 weeks of her life.

  


Given the choice between Untreated Cow’s Milk Fresh From the Udder (“Untreated as in unpasteurized? Is it even _legal_ to serve that?”) and Vegemite (“I hear it’s made from leftover brewer’s yeast. It’s literally _beer spread_.”) for breakfast, Mikasa honestly would have preferred to just wait until lunch, but the fact that Annie couldn’t handle the Vegemite was the deciding factor on what she ended up having for breakfast that morning. Honestly? It was a really poor way to decide.

 She knew this. There were times (like this one) where Mikasa knew that decisions shouldn’t be made based on her obvious dislike for Annie - but there were also days where she just couldn’t resist. Annie was good at a lot of things, and a lot of those things were the same things Mikasa was good at it. The days she could perform better than Annie and then subtly rub it in her face were the days she lived for (petty as it was) - and managing to down two whole pieces of Vegemite toast would have been worth that -

 If she didn’t feel like wanted to puke.

 Breakfast finished an hour and a half ago. She could still taste in the back of her throat, and if they weren’t walking 3 kilometers into the woods to who knows where, she would have rinsed her mouth out with the rest of the water in her drink bottle. As it was, she had three quarters of her drink bottle left and it had to last until lunch - and given it was only 9 AM and it was already a horrifying 100 degrees, she _needed_ it to last until lunch.

 “You okay?”

 Mikasa looked up. Eren had caught up to her looking breathless and uncomfortable in the humidity. He shifted his backpack from one shoulder to the other.

 “Fine,” said Mikasa, trying not to gag.

 “You look sick.”

 “I’m not sick.” She took a tiny sip from her water bottle. “That Vegemite shit is disgusting.”

 Eren raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s not that bad?”

 At that, she actually did gag. “Did I eat the same Vegemite you did or...?”

 “Oh.” Eren let out a laugh despite himself. “Reiner had a friend who used to come and stay with them whenever he came to visit from Australia. Used to bring jars of the stuff because it’s really hard to get here. It’s not like… y’know, Nutella. You only put a little bit on. Like the thinnest layer possible. It’s really not bad.”

 Mikasa wrinkled her nose at him. “Why would they have it here then?”

 “Because it doesn’t go off,” Eren said with a shrug. “At least that’s what Reiner said. It’s basically salt. I mean. This place is at least a couple of hours drive from the closest grocery store - they need stuff that will last, especially in this heat.” He paused. “It’s weird that you didn’t know. Annie came over to our table to complain about it and Reiner made her try some of his. We thought she told your table.”

 Scowling, Mikasa glanced around for the closest person to her that was with her at breakfast. “Mina!” she called.

 Mina blinked. “Oh,” she said, jogging up to them. “Hey. What’s up?”

 “Did Annie tell you how to eat the Vegemite this morning?”

 Mina nodded. “It’s actually delicious! I mean, obviously not in huge quantities, but if with butter and even a little cheese, it’s really good!”

 “Well, she didn’t tell _me,_ ” said Mikasa savagely, and for the second time that day, Mina squeaked and and hurried forward. “Fuck.”

 Eren studied her for a moment. “What’s gotten into you?”

 “Nothing.” Mikasa huffed. “Armin… told me yesterday that people were scared of me. Our own friends, even.”

 “Well… they are,” said Eren matter-of-factly. “But it’s not a bad thing. They just know that you mean business and you aren’t afraid to do what you need to do. It’s supposed to be a good quality. It means you’re respected.”

 She made a face at him and glanced forwards at Mina who was now walking with Armin and Annie. “Not by everyone, apparently,” she grumbled.

 “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 Mikasa said nothing.

 Eren glanced forwards too. “What, Annie?” he said. “God, Mika, not _again._ ”

 “What do you  mean ‘not again’? Besides, Annie didn’t - ”

 “You bite her head off every time she tries to talk to you,” snapped Eren. “Don’t think I don’t know about the stupid shit with your bunks last night. We could hear Ymir threatening you all the way from our table. Maybe she would have told you about the stupid Vegemite thing if you hadn’t been such a pain to her last night.”

 “Oh, so it’s _my_ fault?” she hissed.

 “Is it _not?_ ” demanded Eren. “Jesus, Mika, I love you because you’re my sister and shit, but you’ve sabotaged yourself _twice_ now because of this stupid ass rivalry.”

 Mikasa actually stopped in her tracks. “I can’t _believe_ you’re taking her side over this!”

 “I’m not siding with anyone, but at least she had the decency to stay away in case you started this again!” Eren scowled at her. “I’m not listening to this today, okay? It’s stupid. Armin and I have both told you that you would get along if you tried, and at least _she’s_ tried to avoid picking fights with you.”

 “But - ”

 “Nope!” And Eren threw his hands in the air and he jogged forward to bump shoulders with Annie. She must have told him a joke or something because his scowl disappeared and was replaced with a grin so wide, Mikasa couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for putting it there to begin with.

 She trudged on alone.

 They walked for hours - Hitch and whined and carried on for the entirety of the walk, so even if they weren’t walking for hours, it sure as hell felt like it did - before Rico and Levi broke into a clearing and set down their gear.

 “All right, brats,” said Levi. “We’re kicking off with the crate climb.” He motioned to a pile of old wooden crates and two wide rope circles on the ground. “This is easy enough. Split yourselves into two teams - your bunks, or mixed, I don’t care. The objective is easy. You need to build a crate tower 20 crates high in the fastest time. Three people in harnesses putting the crates together, three people belaying, one person retrieving crates. Easy?”

 Armin eyed the pulleys hanging off the tree branches looking weary. “Is this safe?”

 “It’s as safe as the person belaying you,” deadpanned Rico. “Split yourselves into teams, let’s go.”

 They were met with 14 blank stares.

 Rico and Levi exchanged glances so meaningful they might as well have just said “Are you fucking kidding me?” out loud. “NOW,” snapped Rico, and Ymir and Marco shuffled out of the middle to form a girls team and a boys team because it seemed like the easiest option. They looked back to their counsellors for what to do next.

 “Jesus,” muttered Levi. He glanced at his watch. “You’ve got five minutes to decide who’s belaying, who’s stacking, and who’s retrieving. Your time starts when I say it does. The team that loses washes up after dinner on their own.” He paused. “What are you waiting for?”

 Annie - who was so used to divvying work as captain of three out of four sports teams - stepped right in. “Ymir, Hitch and Sasha, you’re belaying. Mina, you get the crates. Mikasa, Historia and I will stack - ”

 Mikasa blanched. It wasn’t even because Annie was telling them what to do, it was - and this was not something anyone really knew - stacking crates in something called a ‘crate climb’ meant having to be up pretty high. And Mikasa wasn’t sure she was ready for anyone to find out that she was afraid of heights. The top bunk? That was fine. That was _safe_. But held in the air by nothing more than a harness? No, thank you. The words flew from her mouth before she had a chance to really think about them. “Who put you in charge?”

 Annie groaned. “What _now?_ ”

 Mikasa stood her ground, pretending she wasn’t nearly as concerned as she was. “Who put you in charge?” she repeated.

 "I don’t see you stepping in,” snapped Annie.

Ymir groaned. “For fuck’s sake!”

 “Tyrell!” Levi looked about as done as Ymir. “10 second penalty for Johnson’s language! Time starts now!”

 Ymir groaned again and threw her hands in the air in frustration. “This isn’t a grudge match!” she snarled. “Mikasa, what the _hell_ is wrong with Annie’s plan of attack? The three of you are the lightest, and you and she are the fittest!”

 “I’m not stacking,” said Mikasa childishly.

 Annie snorted. “What, afraid of heights?”

 “Fuck you, Leonhardt.”

 “20 second penalty for Jaeger’s language, let’s go ladies, get it together!”

 Annie snarled and shot a frustrated look at the boys’ tower (already four crates high). “Whatever,” she snapped. “Mina, you’re stacking. Let’s go. Hitch and Sasha, start putting crates together while we get into harnesses. Ymir, you too. Mikasa can retrieve is she’s going to be a brat about it.”

 “ _Excuse you?”_

 Annie ignored her and started climbing into a harness. By the time she, Historia, and Mina were ready, Sasha and Hitch had managed a solid base of three crates and Ymir was piling a fourth onto the top. “All right,” she grumbled. “Sasha, you’ve got me. Hitch, you’re belaying Mina. Ymir, you’ve got Historia. We’re gonna do this in tiers - so someone has to always be up top, someone has to be in the middle, and someone has to be low, so we can cover more ground with minimum effort.”

 “Can - can I be at the bottom?” asked Mina weakly, and Annie nodded.

 “Historia?”

 Historia eyed the harnesses wearily. “Middle, please,” she said.

 “Okay,” said Annie. “Sasha, you’re gonna haul me up first. Ymir, wait til I can’t reach you before you haul up Historia. And Hitch, do the same for Mina. Everybody clear?”

 “You got it,” said Sasha with a thumbs up. “Mikasa, grab some crates.”

 Mikasa scowled, suddenly feeling a lot left out of this group effort. The other girls weren’t scared of Annie. Annie was in control without being bossy. Annie had a strategy barely a minute into the game. Annie knew what she was doing and Mikasa could do nothing but resent her for it, if only because Annie was already so much better at being a leader than she was - and Annie didn’t even like to lead. Sulking, Mikasa stomped over to the pile, seizing two at a time and tossing them at Sasha’s feet.

 “Don’t throw them!” snapped Annie. “You’ll risk knocking it over once it gets taller!”

 By the time Ymir was hauling Historia up, they were actually ahead of the boys - they could hear Armin’s attempts at keeping his group from panicking when their tower partially collapsed. Rico actually sounded impressed.

 “Keep it up, ladies, you might still win this with your penalties in place!”

 Everything was going pretty well, and Mikasa was torn between feeling better because they were winning and feeling worse because Annie’s plan was being executed so well. She tossed crate after crate at their feet, until Mina, who was hanging gently by her harness, accidentally nudged the bottom of their tower. It wobbled dangerously, and Annie clung to the top crate with a yelp.

 “Sasha, give me some tension!” she cried. “Mina and Historia, hold it steady. Hold it…”

 But Mikasa was already in mid throw. The crate made contact with Sasha’s shin, who let out a pained cry and bumped into Ymir. Ymir’s grip went slack, and Historia fell about a foot before Ymir caught her again - but the sudden tension had Historia swinging just enough to nudge their tower just that little bit more -

 Mikasa saw it collapse in slow motion, and the boys roared in triumph as Eren placed their 20th crate on the top of their tower.

 “Time!” called Levi. “Baratheon wins!”

 “Bad luck, ladies,” said Rico, as Sasha, Ymir and Hitch let the others down slowly. “You were doing really well but, sometimes, bad things happen. Good teamwork, regardless.”

 “Teamwork, my foot,” grumbled Annie when she touched the ground. “I saw that,” she snapped at Mikasa. “What the hell is your problem?”

 “ _My_ problem?” snarled Mikasa. “ _What_ problem? I didn’t do anything wrong!”

 “Not again,” groaned Hitch. “Do you two even know how not to yell at each other?”

 They ignored her. “You threw that crate at Sasha!” snapped Annie.

 “Oh, like I _intended_ to hit her,” said Mikasa savagely.

 “Intention isn’t the issue,” growled Annie, jabbing a finger into Mikasa’s chest. “I _told you_ not to throw them! You know what retrieving means? Actually going to get things and bringing them back, not tossing them at your teammates like a child throwing a tantrum!”

 “I’m the child, am I?” Mikasa jabbed her back. “ _I’m_ not the one throwing a tantrum about losing!”

 “Annie - ” said Sasha weakly. “Calm down, she didn’t mean to -”

 “You were being careless!” said Annie. “And it cost us a win!”

 “Who _gives_ a shit, it’s a game! Quit being a sore loser!”

 “Except that losing this _game_ because of _your_ carelessness means the _entire team_ has to clean up after dinner!” Annie scowled at her. “All because you had to throw a hissy fit at the idea of someone else being in charge!”

 “THAT’S ENOUGH.” Rico had stepped between them and she glared at them both like she was ready to send them both home. “Commander Shadis _just told you_ that fighting isn’t tolerated at this camp!” she growled. “Stop acting like children. If the two of so much as yell at each other in my presence again, I will have the Commander send you both home, am I clear?”

 “She started it!”

 “It’s not even my fault this time!”

 “AM I CLEAR?” roared Rico, and both girls snapped their mouths shut and looked away.

 Mikasa hadn’t even realized how much of a scene they’d caused. The boys were watching as well. Eren shook his head at the both of them and muttered something to Armin who sighed and shook his head too. Guilt settled in the pit of her stomach. “Sorry,”  she mumbled - more to them, than to Rico or Annie.

 “Same,” grumbled Annie, and Mikasa had a suspicion she was doing the same.

 A couple of counsellors appeared in the clearing with a box of juice boxes and sandwiches, and the tension over everyone else dissipated immediately. Rico was still glaring at them. “You two can wait until everyone else has their food,” she said. “And you’ll do the same at dinner time. Understood?”

 “Yes, ma’am,” they mumbled.

Rico let out a gruff sigh. “I can’t believe I quit CostCo for this.”

  
Mikasa spent the rest of the day actively avoiding Annie, and it was obvious to everyone that Annie was doing the same. What was annoying was that Annie chose to spend her time avoiding Mikasa with Eren, which, in normal circumstances, might have been grounds for another fight, but Mikasa thought of her captaincy and of the way Eren had taken Annie’s side before. She held her tongue.

They’d hiked to the other side of the camp grounds for a bridge building activity (in which they allowed Sasha to call the shots, and were pleasantly surprised that they won over Armin’s genius) before they marched back to camp for some free time before dinner. Armin was sitting on the steps of the Cabin 1 with a book in his lap when Mikasa found him.

 “Hey,” she greeted tiredly.

 Armin glanced up at her and set his book down. “Hey,” he said, shuffling over.

 “Sorry about earlier,” she mumbled, dropping next to him.

 “I don’t think I’m the one you should be apologizing to.” He nodded at a couple of people sitting on the railing of the mess hall.

 Mikasa squinted at them and saw bright blonde hair and a mess of brown, and she scowled. “Why does he like her so much?” she asked vaguely. “When he’s not with us, he’s with her. And when she’s not alone, she’s with him. Why is that?”

 Armin snorted and sipped at his water bottle. “They’re friends?” he offered with a shrug. “You do know Annie’s not as much of a lone wolf as she pretends to be, don’t you?”

 Mikasa tore her eyes away from Eren and Annie’s backs and blinked at Armin. “What do you mean?”

 “She likes her time alone, but she’s friends with almost everyone. She’s good at what she does. She hasn’t ever lost a game that she’s captained. Everyone likes her but you. Why is _that?_ ”

 “Well, she hates _me_ for one,” said Mikasa with a huff.

 Armin snorted again. “No she doesn’t,” he said. “If anything, she just avoids you because she knows you dislike her. You go out of your way to find reasons to fight her - like today.” He paused. “Everyone saw it happen, you know? Everyone saw how she stepped up because no one else would - not even you - and you tore her head off for it. How come?”

 Mikasa paused. “She wanted me to climb the crates,” she mumbled, pulling her knees up to her chin.

 “So?” asked Armin. “I know you’re afraid of heights, but was there really a reason you couldn’t just tell her that?”

 “What, and have everyone else find out too?”

 “There’s a _high ropes course_ on this camp, Mikasa,” said Armin. “They’re gonna find out sooner or later. The whole point of this is to get to know each other better, and that includes the fact that you’re afraid of heights.”

 Mikasa grumbled something about “Showing weakness” under her breath, but Armin just ignored her.

 “What about the crates?” he asked. “Was there a reason you couldn’t walk them over instead of throwing them?”

 Again, she said nothing. What was there to say, really? Armin knew her as well as Eren and he would see through any lame excuses she had to give.

 “I’m not saying that she didn’t do anything wrong, Mika,” he told her. “Just. You’re supposed to be leaders. We all are. We have enough problems on our own without you two constantly being at each other’s throats.” He patted her knee and, in the distance, the dinner bell began to chime. “Come on,” he said, helping her up. “You’ll probably feel better after dinner. I heard something about House Greyjoy making burgers.”

  
Burgers were correct, and those burgers were delicious. Mikasa didn’t know what she was expecting exactly, but when Sasha came back with a burger the size of her face with a side of salad and battered chips, her stomach growled so loudly she was sure Ymir heard it on the other side of the table. She couldn’t help but resent Annie (and herself, but mostly Annie) for the earlier argument because it meant that all 150 students would get food before them and after a day of having nothing to eat but Vegemite toast and corned beef sandwiches, she was _starving._

 When she and Annie finally did get their meals, they ate in silence. Mikasa had a sneaking suspicion that Annie’s conversation with Eren was much the same as her own with Armin, and they spent dinner looking at everything but each other while everyone chattered noisily around them about the day’s adventures. A lot of it was complaining about sore muscles and sunburn; but, surprisingly, a lot of it sounded like fun.

 Hannah Stewart of House Tully came to visit Mina at the leadership table, babbling excitedly about kayaking and the eels in the lake. Her boyfriend, Hans, in House Reyne was regaling everyone on how his harness nearly broke on something called ‘the Leap of Faith’. Admittedly, Mikasa was glad everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves - but she cast a furtive glance at Annie and huffed.

 When everybody had eaten and the plates were piled high, the entirety of the girls’ leadership table groaned and trudged into the cramped kitchen to wash up. The surprising part was that it all went pretty well -

 Until Annie slipped on the surface Mikasa had just mopped and smashed twenty odd plates.

 A stream of curses flew from Annie’s mouth - some so vulgar that Historia actually covered her ears. Then she rounded on Mikasa. “Why didn’t you say anything?!” she snarled.

 No. Nope. She was not getting blamed for this too. “Why didn’t _you_ go around?” snapped Mikasa. “You knew I’d _just_ mopped here - ”

 “I obviously didn’t or I would have broken 20 plates!” rorared Annie. “Jesus, all you had to do was warn me!”

 “All _you_ had to do was watch your damn step, don’t pin this on me!”

 “Oh, watch my step around a pile plates taller than me, because warning someone that the floor was still wet was _so much to ask for!_ ”

 “LEONHARDT. JAEGER.”

 They blanched. Rico was standing in the doorway. She took one look at the pile of broken dishes, and then Mikasa and Annie, and then back again before she let out a long, frustrated sigh. “That’s it,” she hissed. “I’m done babysitting the two of you. Shadis’ office. Go.”

 “But -”

 “NOW.”

 There was no reasoning with her. She snatched furiously at the broom leaning against the wall and shoved the two of them out of the kitchen. “I don’t want to see either of you again unless you’re back at the cabin packing your stuff. If, for some reason, Shadis lets you stay ,I will kick you out of here myself if this happens again. GO.”

 Neither of them said anything when Rico slammed the door in their faces.

 Nor did they say anything on the way to Shadis’ office.

 Nor when he opened the door glowering at them like an angry bull.

 “I’ve heard about you two,” he grumbled. “I’m disgusted. Embarrassed, even, that two young girls like yourselves would be so petty.”

 Mikasa said nothing still. She could feel her face warming in shame as she felt her captaincy slip through her fingers. So much for being able to put ‘Head Girl’ on her college applications. So much for being able to control Eren. She could already see the disappointment on Dr. Jaeger’s face. She hung her head.

 “You were told,” he said, “that fighting was not tolerated here.”

 “Yes, sir,” they mumbled.

 He handed Annie the phone. “Call your parents, Leonhardt. You will inform them of your behaviour and that you are to be collected from school at 1800 tomorrow.”

 Annie said nothing. Her hands shook as she took the phone and dialed her number - and when her father picked up, Mikasa found herself feeling physically ill, because Annie had barely even opened her mouth when -

 “ _What happened this time? You know what? I don’t even want to hear it, Anastasia! I told you I’ve had enough of you picking fights with classmates. This is the final straw. If they’re sending you home, you will be grounded for the rest of the summer, and I will not be funding any more of your extracurriculars. You hear me? Sports Captain be damned - you won’t be competing in anything anymore!”_

 And Annie just… took it.

 Mikasa had never seen her so vulnerable, nor had she ever taken any sort of verbal abuse lying down - not from her, not from teachers - not from anyone. Except now. She hung her head low and shrunk into herself, and suddenly Mikasa remembered how she’d disappeared for weeks after Eren broke his arm.

 She felt sick.

 She snatched the phone from her.

 “Uh. Hi. Mr. Leonhardt?” she said. “Sorry to bother you. My name’s Mikasa. I’m a friend of Annie’s from school. I just wanted to tell you that this whole thing was a misunderstanding. She didn’t do anything wrong. We were just…” She looked over at Shadis, who said nothing and just raised an eyebrow. “We were just making a courtesy call, y’know? No need to get worried or worked up. Everything’s fine! It was nice to talk to you.” And then she hung up.

 Shadis was staring at her.

 Annie was staring at her.

 She coughed. “We’re sorry, Commander Shadis, sir,” she said, throwing in a bow for good measure. “Most of it… was my fault. Please excuse us just this once. Nothing of the sort will happen again.”

 Mikasa wasn’t sure if he was lying about being unforgiving, or if he was just _really_ surprised - perhaps both - but he nodded. “It better not. Let this be a warning to both of you. If I hear Rico complain about another fight, I will find you myself and send you home, is that understood?”

 “Yes, sir,” said Mikasa.

 “Dismissed.”

 Mikasa didn’t wait to be told twice. Annie was still staring at her like she’d grown two heads, so she seized her wrist and nearly dragged her from the office. “Don’t,” she said. “Seriously. Don’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize… when Eren broke his arm… I just thought...”

 “It’s… fine? I guess?” said Annie at last. “I - ”

 “Seriously.” Mikasa squeezed her wrist. “Don’t. I’m sorry. Just. It’ll be weird. Call it a truce?”

 Annie blinked, obviously still caught off guard. “Uh. Sure.” She shook Mikasa’s hand. “A truce.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO FRIENDS! It is I, Jelly. You may know me from other ships such as ereannie and aruani because Annie/happiness is my OTP. Y'all already know that this fic exists, so there's not much to tell except that we started this partnership over beta-ing each other's stories, and now we have come to this. Hope you guys are having as much fun as we are! You're in for a ride!

**Author's Note:**

> MMM here: I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as we enjoy writing it. This has been in the works for literally months now, and is a sort of practice run for a longer, more intensive story we will be writing in the future.


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